CNN
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The party is coming to an end, and much sooner than anticipated.
The Humanity Star, a reflective satellite launched by private company Rocket Lab, is expected to flame out sometime this week. Launched in New Zealand in January, it had been expected to keep us looking to the skies for the majority of 2018.
“In the coming days, the Humanity Star will begin its final descent into the Earth’s atmosphere where it will burn up on re-entry, leaving no trace,” Peter Beck, founder of Rocket Lab, said in a statement.
The satellite, which to many people resembles a disco ball, was launched to encourage people to “think a little differently about their lives, actions and what is important for humanity,” according to Beck.
The Humanity Star had no specific function, except as a spectacle. It is made from carbon fiber and has 65 reflective panels that reflect sunlight back to Earth. As it traverses the night sky, it spins rapidly, creating a blinking flashing effect.
But those days are numbered. According to Humanity Star’s own tracker, the object is losing altitude and, based on the rate at which it is dropping, is expected to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere on Thursday.
Courtesy Humanity Star
Rocket Lab founder Peter Beck poses next to the satellite prior to launch.
Richard Easther, an astronomer from Auckland University, said the earlier-than-expected re-entry is likely down to flawed modeling.
“I’m guessing that the forecast was based on a regular sized satellite, and an object that is essentially a balloon will feel a lot more drag, more than the regular satellites that are sent up, (which resemble) a hunk of metal,” he said.
Beck, the company’s founder, said that the satellite was intended as an exercise to encourage people to think more deeply about their place in the cosmos.
“My hope was to encourage people to linger looking at the stars and ponder our place in the universe,” he said.
© Yayoi Kusama. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York
This installation by renowned Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama uses mirrors and LED lights to give viewers the sense of being in deep space.
NASA
An image of earth captured by American astronaut William Anders during Apollo 8, the first manned space mission to leave Earth's orbit.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Produced for a church in Siena, Italy, Giovanni di Paolo's Renaissance painting portrays the universe as a series of concentric circles. The earth sits in the center, with the sun above and the known planets in orbit.
© Wolfgang Tillmans, courtesy Maureen Paley, London
A photograph showing Venus as it passes between the Earth and the sun. This transit of Venus against the sun will not be visible again until 2117.
Smithsonian American Art Museum/Art Resource/Scala, Florence
African-American artist Alma Thomas depicted the setting sun in this painting from the latter stages of her career. The name is believed to refer to Apollo 10's lunar module, Snoopy. But, as the new book "Universe: Exploring the Astronomical World" suggests, it may refer to the cartoon strip character: "(Snoopy's) habitual position lying on top of his doghouse might also explain why the horizon runs vertically rather than horizontally."
Sotheby's, Inc. © 2011
One of two cosmological woodcuts created by German Renaissance painter and theorist Albrecht Dürer. Based on the work of Austrian mathematician Johannes Stabius and German astronomer Conrad Heinfogel, the two images show the northern and southern constellations.
© The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation/Art Resource, NY, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais
Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky alludes to the cosmos through a series of colored circles set against a black backdrop.
NASA
American astronaut Bruce McCandless floats above Earth as he becomes the first person to embark on an untethered spacewalk in 1984.
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, UK/Bridgeman Images
A 16th-century illustration based on the work of influential 13th-century astronomer, Abu Yahya Zakariya' ibn Muhammad al-Qazwini. In a theory popular throughout the Islamic world at the time, Qazvini envisaged the world surrounded by a series of spheres.
DEA Picture Library/DeAgostini/Getty Images
An ancient Mayan depiction of the cosmos, with the fire god Xiuhtecuhlti at its center. T-shaped trees can be seen in each of the four cardinal directions.
Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze
Galileo produced these detailed drawings after observing the moon through a small telescope. Thanks to his artistic training, Galileo realized that he could use the visible shadows to ascertain the moon's topography.
The Cartin Collection
Flaming comets are imagined flying over -- and towards -- Earth. The image appeared in
"The Augsburg Book of Miracles" a recently discovered 16th-century manuscript envisaging disasters sent by God.
“While the Humanity Star was a brief moment in human history, I hope the conversations and ideas it sparked around the world will continue to be explored.”
However, Easther said he was encouraged that a company from New Zealand, a small, non-military power, was able to complete the launch successfully.
While the satellite “didn’t achieve its goal,” he said that the technological leap is the important takeaway.
“As a New Zealander I’m proud… (to see) homegrown hardware put in orbit,” he said.